chief god of his nation in its heathendom, may possibly have arisen after their conversion to Christianity; but from the coincidence that the Algonkin tribes constantly applied such seemingly opprobrious terms to their principal deity, it may have arisen from a similar cycle of myths as did theirs.[1]
There are references in Xahila's Annals to the Quiche deities, Exbalanquen, Cabrakan, Hunahpu, and Tohil, but they do not seem to have occupied any prominent place in Cakchiquel mythology. Several minor gods are named, as Belehe Toh, nine Toh, and Hun Tihax, one Tihax; these appellations are taken from the calendar.
Father Pantaleon de Guzman furnishes the names of various inferior deities, which serve to throw light on the Cakchiquel religion. Four of these appear to be gods of diseases, Ahal puh, Ahal teꜪob, Ahal xic, and Ahál Ꜫanya; at least three of these second words are also the designations of maladies, and ahal is probably a mistake of the copyist for ahau, lord. As the gods of the abode of the dead, he names Tatan bak and Tatan holom, Father Bones and Father Skull.
Another series of appellations which Guzman gives as of Cakchiquel gods, show distinctly the influence of Nahuatl doctrines. There are Mictan ahauh, lord of Mictlan, this being the name of the abode of darkness, in Aztec mythology; Caueztan ahauh, probably Coatlan, lord of the abode of serpents; Tzitzimil, the tzitzimime of the Aztecs; and Colele,
- ↑ I have suggested an explanation of this strange term to apply to the highest and most beneficent of their divinities, in a short article in the American Antiquarian, 1885, "The Chief God of the Algonkins in his Character as a Cheat and a Liar."
